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The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the publication of electronic editions of Visions of the Daughters of Albion, copy A (British Museum) and proof copy a (Library of Congress). Like all the illuminated books in the Archive, both the texts and images of these new publications are fully searchable and are supported by our Inote and ImageSizer applications.

Like copies C and J, previously published in the Archive, copy A was produced in Blake's first printing session for Visions in 1793. Probably to lend variety to his stock of copies on hand, Blake used three ink colors in this first printing: yellow ochre (as in copy A), raw sienna (copy C), and green (copy J). All three copies exemplify his use of semi-transparent washes to color his illuminated books in the early 1790s. Like several other illuminated books in the British Museum collection, the leaves of copy A are mounted close to the image in windows cut in thick paper. The inner edges of these mounts appear in some of our reproductions.

Proof copy a is an unusual, and probably fragmentary, remnant of Blake's typical proofing of his illuminated prints in black ink (which takes on a brownish hue when thinly printed). This group of just 6 proofs was printed in 1793; they are probably the earliest extant impressions of Visions of the Daughters of Albion. All but the frontispiece and title page have been trimmed within the platemarks to the designs only. Blake very probably printed the entire plates, to check the progress of his work, and a later owner was responsible for trimming off the texts. Yet, even if reduced after they left Blake's hands, these impressions offer a glimpse into his etching and printing methods.

Festival coordinator John Wilkinson said it was the most ambitious so far with 35 attractions ranging from dancing to dinners, film to flowers and talks to tours, as well as a six-hour open-air rock concert will be held on Hucknall Market Place. Writer Bill Studdiford and actor Ian Frost, will present the world premiere of a play entitled "Extraordinary Friends Byron and Shelley," putting on two performances. At the annual Byron dinner, the guest speaker will be Edward Enfield, father of comedian Harry Enfield, with a talk on "Byron And The Elgin Marbles." Scholar and former Labour Party leader, Michael Foot, is scheduled to attend a final-day event.

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The house in the Lake District where William Wordsworth grew up reopened to the public last week after an eight-month £1m renovation. "We want visitors to be inspired to go away and find out more about Wordsworth and his poetry," said Kate Hilton, curator of Wordsworth House, Cockermouth, where the poet was born in 1770. "And perhaps to find out more about life in 18th-century Cumbria."

The people of Cockermouth bought the grand Georgian house, the finest in the town, when it was about to be demolished to make way for a bus station, and gave it to the National Trust in 1938.

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For June, Keats House Museum, Hampstead, is mounting a program of events about the poet's situation in and around London--and not only at the house in Hampstead.

(No, this is not a scene from a Japanese SF movie.)

Here is the schedule of events for the next few weeks:

Wednesday 9 June at 7.00 pm
Visit the City of London where John Keats was born and grew up. Jean Haynes, a Blue Badge Guide, will lead a walk from the banks of the River Thames to Moorgate. We will visit the site of John Keats birth, the family church and the place where his father died. Meet outside Blackfriars Tube Station at 7.00pm.
Places are limited so please book at Keats House. Tickets priced £5.50 adults, £4.50 concessions.Wednesday 16 June at 7.00pm
An opportunity to visit The Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret. The Museum is found at the top of a rickety spiral staircase in the barn-like roof space of an old Church. The Operating Theatre is built in the old Herb Garret of St Thomas's Hospital. While the Garret has a charming old world atmosphere of oak beams and bundles of herbs, the Theatre itself is a shocking reminder of the harsh reality of life before modern science and technology. John Keats studied to be a Surgeon Apothecary at Guy’s Hospital in 1815 and would have worked in an operating theatre like this one. Meet outside the Old Operating Theatre, 9a St. Thomas's St. London SE1 9RY (Click here for a map of St Thomas's.) Places are limited so please book at Keats House. Tickets priced £8.50.Thursday 24 June at 7.00pm.
The Keats House Collection of books and manuscripts is held at London Metropolitan Archives in Clerkenwell. This will be a chance to view some of the items, including manuscripts by John Keats, and to hear from the Archivists who care for them.

London Metropolitan Archives
40 Northampton Road, London. EC1R 0HB

Places are limited so please book at Keats House. Tickets priced £7.50.

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Proposals are invited for an online collection of essays on "Wordsworthian Pedagogies," to be edited by Brad Sullivan. Romantic Circles is launching a new peer-reviewed series, called The Pedagogy Commons, which is designed to explore and highlight emerging teaching theories and practices in Romanticism.

This issue of the Commons will focus on "Wordsworthian" teaching and learning. How do we teach Wordsworth now? How does our pedagogy reflect or dispute critical understandings of Wordsworth and his views of poetry, creativity, and learning? How do we employ Wordsworthian ideas about the mind, experiential learning, and personal engagement in our teaching? What can we (as teachers and students) learn from Wordsworth?

This collection of essays is mainly intended for teachers of undergraduate courses on British and European Romantic literature. The editor is seeking submissions that are grounded in research (on Wordsworth, on teaching and learning, in classrooms) and (in true Wordsworthian fashion) well-considered personal experience.

You are invited to submit an essay proposal (250-word abstract) on some aspect of "Wordsworthian Pedagogies." Essays for this volume may vary in length from 3,000 to 10,000 words, and you should indicate the proposed length of your submission. Please submit your proposal to Brad Sullivan, Associate Professor of English, Western New England College [dsulliva@wnec.edu], by June 30, 2004.

The digital format of the Commons can accommodate publications which include resources such as sample syllabi, lesson plans, links to handouts, primary reading texts, or in-class exercises, web pages or samples of web-based student activities, full-color illustrations and designs, sound files, and so on. In your proposal, please include comments about your plans to use these kinds of elements. If you'd like to see examples of what's possible in this medium, you might take a look at the Romantic Circles Praxis volumes. Generally we encourage all essays to include the following elements: (1) a guide to further reading, and (2) links to useful online resources.

All submissions will be peer-reviewed. Romantic Circles editorial staff will adapt the code and design of essays and materials to site standards, so submissions may be in MSWord or HTML. Final essays (and permissions) will need to be submitted to Brad Sullivan as e-mail attachments by September 30, 2004.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS: June 30, 2004. Please submit your proposal to Brad Sullivan . If you have questions about the proposed volume, or wish to discuss possible topics, please contact the editor at the same email address.

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The University of London Insitute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, is hosting a one-day conference on Saturday 29 May, 2004, on "Romantic-Era Writing for Children." the conference is co-organised by Chawton House Library, the University of Southampton and the Corvey-Hallam Project. It's schedule and information on attendance can be found here. Or email ies@sas.ac.uk to register.

The Registration Scheme for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom was introduced in 1988, and a second phase was launched in 1995. It measures museum performance against accepted professional standards and, according to the Scheme, has the following aims:

Encourage all museums and galleries to achieve agreed minimum standards in museum management, collection care and public services.

Foster confidence in museums as repositories of our common heritage and managers of public resources.

Provide a shared ethical basis for all bodies involved in the preservation of the heritage which meet the definition of a "museum."

SJ

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The special exhibit on William Hazlitt's 1824 work Spirit of the Age remains at The Wordsworth Museum at Dove Cottage through June 6. The Wordsworth Trust will publish a new edition of The Spirit of the Age to coincide with the exhibition, with a preface by Michael Foot and illustrated with the portraits from the exhibition. Besides Wordsworth and Coleridge, the exhibit includes portraits of Thomas Malthus, Jeremy Bentham, Leigh Hunt, and William Wilberforce. Tom Paulin reviews the exhibit in The Guardian for April 10.